Ariel Winter Says Her Mother Sexualized Her at a Young Age

“I went through a really rough period, a really bad chapter,” Winter, now 19, recalls.

She says food was “very, very restricted” in her household from the time she began acting at the age of four, a profession that she claims wasn’t her choice but that of her mother, Crystal Workman.

When she was just 14 years old, Winter alleged that she was physically and emotionally abused by her mother. The courts gave her older sister, Shanelle Gray, temporary custody of her in 2012. Later, at the age of 17, she was emancipated.

But Winter will never forget what it felt like to be growing up and feeling sexualized as early as age seven.

“[I was dressed in] the smallest miniskirts, sailor suits, low-cut things, the shortest dresses you’ve ever seen. People thought I was 24 when I was 12,” she recalls, claiming, “If there was going to be a nude scene when I was that age, my mother would have a thousand percent said yes.”